
Richard Erdman was born June 1, 1925, in Enid, Oklahoma, and was raised in Colorado Springs. After his high school drama teacher told him that he might have what it takes for movies, he and his mom moved to California, where he enrolled in Hollywood High. While still a teenager, he was offered and accepted a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers.
Erdman racked up 177 credits in his 73-year career, working as an actor for the better part of eight decades, and averaging at least a few roles per year, including a six-year stint on the TV series “Community” (2009-2015). As Slate pointed out when he passed away in March 2019, there were just seven (7) years between 1944 and 2017 that Erdman didn’t have at least one credit. He was a frequent guest at conventions and film festivals well into the 2010s and his “Community” character, Leonard, had his own YouTube channel. The LA Times characterized Erdman as “the consummate ‘that guy’ — a difficult-to-identify-but-recognizable supporting player,” but they forgot about his distinctive, croaky voice, one that I would know anywhere.
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